Saturday, November 24, 2007

What I did on Black Friday

As we have for the past three or four years, our family headed out early yesterday. For us, it makes sense because the kids are early risers and we need to take them out before they get cabin fever. We made a quick stop at Best Buy, where Marc went in, saw that it was still crazy at 7:15, and came right back out. Then we drove to a large mall, where I bought a few things, and Alex made his way up and down the escalator several times. We stopped to have breakfast with my parents, and were home by 10:30.

We don't generally look to buy big-ticket items at this time of year unless we actually need something. And our kids are young enough that they don't pester us for some hot toy that's hard to find. So my Black Friday shopping is thankfully confined to a few non-gadget gifts and bargains on things that I want to buy anyway (like the jacket that I got Alex for half off the original price). All of this keeps my Black Friday relatively stress-free, while allowing me to still take advantage of some great deals.

As a side note, I'll be interested to see what the retailers' reports are. I thought the stores were noticeably more crowded this year than they were the last couple of years, so I would expect the retailers to report higher earnings. Although perhaps the sales were steeper or more people decided to be early birds.

2 Comments:

I was in several stores today, Saturday, and asked a couple clerks about Black Friday. They said their stores were packed, especially in the morning, and people were buying a lot more than the bargain-priced items. I know I spent enough money this weekend, but nothing I couldn't afford.

I found that the stores in my town had a lot more sales than they advertised in the previous day's newspaper.

When I actually did venture out around 9 a.m. I was a little surprised to see that the stores were still very busy and that there were a lot of good deals, (in my mind that is 50% off or more).

I shopped last year and there were (1) few bargains, and (2) few people in the stores. Local retailers must have finally caught on (this is the South where things progress SLOWLY), that people won't buy unless the price is right.

About Me

I'm an attorney, wife to Marc, and mother to toddler Alex and newborn Tyler. I'm also the CFO of our family - I manage our finances, including our spending, saving, investing and planning. I love to cook, and I even enjoy the occasional craft project if it's not too complicated.

I used to post on a regular schedule but found that my life was to hectic to keep up. Instead, I now post when I can on my favorite topics: family finances, cooking, and parenting.